Glinka, Mikhail Ivanovich, << GLIHNG kuh, mih kah EEL ih VAH nuh vihch >> (1804-1857), was the first important Russian composer of the 1800’s. His music, which uses characteristics of folk songs and Russian Orthodox choral themes, launched a major national school of Russian music in the second half of the 1800’s.
Glinka’s first opera, A Life for the Tsar (1836; now retitled Ivan Susanin), was based on an incident from Russian history from the early 1600’s. It inspired other composers, especially Modest Mussorgsky and Alexander Borodin, to compose works based on Russian historical and patriotic subjects. For his second opera, Ruslan and Lyudmila (1842), Glinka used a fairy tale written by his friend, the poet Alexander Pushkin. The work inspired a number of Russian fantasy operas by Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Peter Ilich Tchaikovsky.
Loading the player...Ruslan and Lyudmila Overture
Glinka’s orchestral works include two Spanish overtures (1850, 1852) and the Valse-fantaisie (1845). His folk-song fantasy Kamarinskaya (1850) is considered the beginning of the Russian symphonic school.
Glinka was born at Novospasskoe near Smolensk. He traveled in Italy between 1830 and 1833. His exposure to Italian opera had a significant impact on his development as a composer.
